OYAKI student from India

Ms. Saraswaty is a staff of Vishwalaya, a NGO in the suburbs of Bangalore, south India. In Vishwalaya, they mainly take care of orphans and handicapped children. She had stayed in rural area in Nagano for 2 month, from January to March 2013, and learned cooking traditional and local food "OYAKI" or baked flour bun stuffed with various ingredients like vegetables. Shinko Ippo is the small but popular OYAKI factory where she has learned OYAKI. It is located in Shinkomachi area of Nagano city.

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When Ms. Rie Goto, a staff of Vishwalaya visited Shinko Ippo and tasted OYAKI, she came up with an idea of cooking OYAKI in Indian village. Vishwalaya also aims to improve the human rights of women in village. Ms.Goto and Ms. Saraswaty expect that OYAKI factory can be source of income for the women in village. Since there are many Japanese workers in Bangalore, their OYAKI can be popular among them. They also hope that Sinko Ippo's OYAKI can be accepted in Indian rural area because two main ingredients of OYAKI, flour and vegetables, are very popular and there are many vegetarians in India.

Then Ms. Saraswaty, who is good at cooking, was sent to Shinko Ippo. She learned how to cook OYAKI and devised four new Indian-flavors OYAKI recipes: potato, vegetable mix, spinach and sweet potato. And those were well received by the staffs of Shinko Ippo and local residents.

While staying there, she positively participate the local events. She played with children at nursery school and gave the lessons how to cook Indian foods at elementary school and community center. Ms. Ikuko Murata, the leader of Shinko Ippo, remembers that Ms. Saraswaty was so cheerful that Shinkomachi area had been very happy and encouraged.

After going back to India, she is planing to teach how to cook OYAKI to villagers around Vishwalaya. Shinko Ippo and villagers hope she will make a success of OYAKI project.

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・Vishwalaya

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